Polarization in The Workplace And Strategy To Address it

French mathematician Blaise Pascal was known for saying “Vérité en-deçà des Pyrénées, erreur au-delà” which means “Truth below the Pyrenees, error beyond”. He was greatly influenced by French philosopher Michel De Montaigne who said many years before him “Quelle vérité que ces montagnes bornent, qui est mensonge au monde qui se tient au-delà” which means “What a truth that these mountains limit, which is a lie to the world that stands beyond”. Both Pascal and Montaigne before him pointed to the same issue regarding what people accept and validate is not accepted and validated by others. People with different political views, culture, mentalities, countries, and sometimes alma mater disagree on different workplace details. The word “polarization in the workplace” is often attributed to political differences however it can be cultural, societal, educational, and gender-based. It doesn’t matter its basis as long as we can change it.

Exaggerated perceptions of political differences may lead to decreased collaboration and both job satisfaction and effectiveness. Harvard Business Review authors Dawn Chow and Jeffrey Lee pointed to “false polarization bias” that is revealed as a universal psychological phenomenon driven by natural thinking of “us versus them” and not by any specific political context. False Polarization bias is also based on overestimating the extent to which people from the opposing political or cultural groups disliked them, increasing dislike mistrust by the other group. Chow and Lee developed three strategies to help managers create awareness to reduce the effect of both Polarization and False Polarization bias on teams.

The first strategy pertains to building a workplace environment based on cooperation and coordination and not competition. Team members should be incentivized and rewarded based on the cooperation level. The second strategy is to encourage and extend the time for people to get to know each other; creating opportunities for team members with opposing views to build deeper trust and start interacting. The third strategy pertains to creating a safe environment for people to share their views through open and honest discussions at all levels of the organization allowing team members to know each other and truly understand each other’s points of view.

Martin Reeves, chairman of Boston Consulting Group’s Henderson Institute in San Fransisco, and collaborators recommend leaders to address the context of rising polarization in a strategic way that includes understanding the team and the practice and explicitly outlining the organization’s policy on issues that may cause polarization. Engage everyone by creating a safe and respectful environment in which no one feels pressured to express his stance. Great leaders influence their ecosystem through their relationships with stakeholders even on broad issues like common interests. Finally, great leaders should promote verified fact-based discourse to deter the spread of misinformation among team members and within the practice and society. Furthermore, identifying purveyors of misinformation and avoiding doing business with them.